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Regarding George H's warnings that Sobel's  "Longitude" might send him into
apoplectic fits, Alex E. wrote:
"That's true.  I already returned the book, and you calmed me down about
the  hanging"

The hanging is probably legend. Much of the rest is probably  true. There are
several different versions of the legend running around. One  version has the
sailor who gets hanged smelling the burning kelp pits of Scilly  instead of
keeping his own reckoning as in Sobel. These legends have been around  for a
very long time, perhaps from the early 19th century. Sobel certainly  didn't
invent any of it. I learned more or less the same story of Shovell's  fleet, and
told with the same "morality play" style, when I first started  reading about
lunars and longitude back in the late 1970s.

As for the  rest of Sobel's book, it's really very good (especially the
Illustrated  edition). It's a goldmine of interesting anecdotes in the history of
navigation.  I would bet you cold hard cash (not very much, mind you ) that
you  would learn literally dozens of things you never knew before by sitting
down and  reading that book. And the prose is quite eloquent. As William F.
Buckley put  it: "an exquisitely done narrative of the chronometer".

Of course no book  is perfect, and she certainly plays up the "villain" role
for Maskelyne (and  says so explicitly). That's a judgement call rather than a
matter of fact. I  disagree with her judgement there, but her account of the
historical facts is  mostly reliable, though not without exception. Of course,
then again, my  training is in physics and astronomy. I've got more in common
with Maskelyne  than Harrison. Most of the real lunars fans on this list
probably have similar  biases. How many of the people who post frequently about
lunars on this list are  also unusually well-versed in mathematics, or physics,
or astronomy, or all  three??

-FER
42.0N 87.7W, or 41.4N  72.1W.
www.HistoricalAtlas.com/lunars

   

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